Since the first days of August, very heavy monsoon rains have strongly affected all regions in Pakistan creating floods where refugees were counted in the millions.

Given the amplitude of the disaster, the International Charter "Space and major Disaster" was activated on August 1^st, 2010. Canadian satellites RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 were immediately tasked to contribute. Numerous images were provided to the Charter and these two of these images are offered to broaden understanding of the extent of the disaster.

These images are centered on the region of Sukkur, the province of Sindh in the centre of Pakistan. The area located upstream from Sukkur is strongly affected by floods due to the presence of an important irrigation dam on the Indus River. The RADARSAT-1 reference image was acquired on May 27, 2001 while the RADARSAT-2 crisis image was acquired on August 21, 2010. By overlying the two images, we extracted the flooded areas that are presented on the coloured map-image. On this map-image, the original bed of the Indus River is in dark blue while the flooded zones are in light blue colour.

Other products related to this event are available on the following web sites:

• Charte Internationale Espace et Catastrophes Majeures (dated August 2, 2010)
• UNOSAT